The present invention relates to electronic cabinets capable of slidably receiving therein one or more chassis and, more particularly to a connector panel to enable plugs mounted on one of the chassis and the cabinet to reliably engage receptacles mounted on the other of the chassis and the cabinet even in the presence of normally unacceptable manufacturing tolerances.
It is well known that in the communication, navigation, computer and like industries manufacturing electronic systems that the electronic systems are made up of a plurality of subsystems with one or more of the subsystems being assigned to a particular chassis. The plurality of chassis are normally slidably mounted in a cabinet such that one or more cabinets house the electronic system. It is required that the chassis be slidably received in the cabinets in a manner enabling the individual chassis to be slid out of the cabinets for maintenance, repair and/or replacement. Additionally, there must be provided electrical connections for power and/or signal paths between the various chassis with this interchassis connection being connected to the cabinet so as not to interfere with the slidable ability of the chassis relative to the cabinet. This necessitates a connector between the chassis and the cabinet, with cables in the cabinet providing the interconnection between the chassis for power and/or signal paths. Due to the slidability of the chassis relative to the cabinet, it is the usual practice to have a plurality of connector panels in the cabinet each containing either a plurality of receptacles or a plurality of plugs and each of the chassis have either a plurality of mating plugs or receptacles which are to engage the cabinet-mounted mating receptacles or plugs of an associated one of the plurality of connector panels.
The introduction of a low-insertion force, multiple-pin panel-to-panel connector of up to 104 connections per section with three sections to a connector or a total of 312 pins to a connector, has encouraged the practical use of six such connectors or 1872 wire connections per electronic chassis at its cabinet interface. The normal connector design has a built-in capability to permit a misalignment of up to 0.030 inches with the retention of reliable engagement of a plug with a mating receptacle. This freedom permits the cluster of six plugs to engage reliably when the chassis is referenced and aligned with mating receptacles through the use of a basic pin and socket system at the chassis-cabinet interface to align the cluster of plugs with the cluster of receptacles.
As can be seen and as is well known in the art, the misalignment of 0.030 inches provided by the normal connector design requires very precise matching of the cabinet depth and width with the chassis depth and width and a precise manufacturing of the sliding arrangement enabling the chassis to be slid relative to the cabinet. This precise machining adds to the cost of the electronic cabinet and its associated chassis to provide the desirable reliable engagement between the cluster of plugs and the cluster of receptacles.
Without the precise manufacturing process of the chassis and the cabinet together with their slide arrangement, all of the manufacturing tolerances accumulate resulting in the basic pin and socket system no longer being sufficiently confining to assure a reliable connector alignment for the cluster of plugs and the cluster of receptacles.